Bell and Tester went with them, for Bell was to keep watch and prepare some food, and Tester was to be tied up, because he was sure to be distressed if Mansel went down the well and might even fall down in some effort to comfort his lord.
Then I went down, with the light and the beams which Carson and I had cut the night before.
A foot or more of the mouth of the shaft was visible, and, by directing the light, I could see the steps within; but I never beheld a place which looked so black and uninviting, and there was now in the depths of the well an odour which I cannot exactly describe. It seemed to be a bad smell, grown faint with age.
I had my beams in place in a minute of time, and then gave the signal for Hanbury to lower the planks.
As might have been expected, the shaft was between the two beams, but so much had I twisted and turned during my descent that, though I knew from the niches that it must run north or south, I could tell no more. But, when the planks were in place, Mansel lowered the measuring-line, and under my direction, moved it until it hung plumb over the middle of the mouth. This showed, as I afterwards found, that the shaft ran north, towards the castle: and Hanbury marked the place by driving a peg out of sight into the ground.
The stage, when I had built it, lay some six inches below the lintel of the mouth of the shaft. The water was rising fast, and I set the planks as close to the mouth as I could, so that by using the windlass, without disturbing the stage, we could do something to keep the water down.
Then I was pulled up, and Mansel made ready to descend.
Over his clothes he put on a waterproof suit, tight-fitting at the wrists and ankles as at the waist and throat. In his pocket he had a torch, and that was all.
Communication by shouting up and down the well had proved unsatisfactory, for the words arrived distorted and often unrecognizable: while I was below, therefore, Mansel and Hanbury had lashed a spring to the pulley-beam and fastened a cord to the spring. This rude apparatus worked very well, for, when the cord was pulled tight and then let go, the spring hit the beam with a smack which there was no mistaking. To the other end of the cord was fastened a biscuit-tin, which, in case of trouble, we were to dash against the wall. We also took the bell which rang from the kitchen hall and hung it inside the parapet so that, were it to ring while he was below, Mansel would receive so important a signal direct.
So soon as Mansel was down, we were to start bailing, and the signal that he was clear and that we could pull up the seat was to be two strokes of the spring upon the pulley-beam.
We had hardly begun to lower him, when, to our dismay, the searchlight, which I had left burning upon the stage, went suddenly out: but Mansel cried to us to go on, and a moment later I saw the flash of his torch. Compared with the searchlight, this threw a miserable beam; and I was not at all happy to think he was going down thus embarrassed to a place which had seemed so dreadful when it was full of light. I think we all three had hopes that, when he was down, he would be able to put in order what had gone wrong: but, if we had, they were vain, for, after a little, the spring struck twice upon the beam, and, when we pulled up the seat by which we had let him down, the lamp was hanging upon the hook beneath.
Then we let down a bucket and started to bail, and we knew that Mansel was in the shaft, for the light which his torch had been giving had disappeared.
And, except that we laboured steadily for about five minutes, that is as much as I know of that day’s work, for then I was dealt such a blow on the back of my head that I fell down like an ox and lost consciousness.
Hanbury saw me fall, but, before he had time to cry out, he had been served as I had, and, since he was still senseless when I sat up, Mansel alone of us three can speak to what followed the assault.
This was the tale he told us so soon as he could.
“I made a bridge of a plank from the stage to a step in the shaft, and so spared myself immersion; and, though I got pretty wet, I was able to keep the torch out of the water. Then I drew the plank after me into the shaft, for, if I had left it in place, the bucket would have fouled it when you began to bail.
“The shaft is three feet wide by about five high. Its walls and steps are of stones from the riverbed, laid in cement. Its roof is curved and built of stones similar to those used for the well. I imagine it owes its style to the Count’s desire for secrecy, for all the stuff used to build it might well have gone into the well. The walls of the latter are certainly backed with pebbles as high as the first spring.
“The going was very unpleasant, not to say dangerous, for the steps are very rough and covered with slime. I had hoped, by counting them and measuring the rises and treads, to get figures from which Hanbury could tell pretty well where the chamber lies; but their flight
